


To confirm, or not to confirm (there was never really any question)

by Bohemia



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabble, M/M, camelot drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-15 05:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8044357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bohemia/pseuds/Bohemia
Summary: Arthur Lawrence Jonathan Dubois Pendragon wants to be friends with you on Facebook.What was Merlin supposed to do with that?
Originally written for the Camelot_drabble amnesty post. The prompt was 'Facebook' (originally posted May, 2013)





	To confirm, or not to confirm (there was never really any question)

**Author's Note:**

> I was going through files on an old laptop and came across this, so I thought I'd repost it as I haven't quite finished the next update of Crown & Consort!

 

* * *

_Arthur Lawrence Jonathan Dubois Pendragon wants to be friends with you on Facebook._

_Arthur Lawrence Jonathan Dubois Pendragon  
36 friends – 1476 photos – 742 wall posts – 2 groups_

Merlin almost spat coffee over his laptop. “What the…?” He carefully placed his mug on the kitchen table and pushed it out of harm’s way. He rubbed his eyes and looked back at the screen.

_Arthur Lawrence Jonathan Dubois Pendragon wants to be friends with you on Facebook._

He looked around, half-expecting Gwaine to pop out from behind the fridge grinning maddeningly as he announced this was some elaborate April Fools joke that he’d chosen to execute in December in order to maintain the element of true surprise.

But Gwaine was nowhere to be seen, and to be fair (not that Merlin often felt charitable towards his housemate when he was the target of his numerous jokes) this seemed too callous for Gwaine.

So if it wasn’t Gwaine trying to make him look like a prat…

Merlin shut his laptop and pushed it away from him to join the discarded mug. There was no reason on Earth for Arthur ‘I’m so popular I could have ten thousand friends, no, ALL of the friends, on Facebook, but I choose not to because I’m ridiculously picky’ Pendragon to contact boring old Merlin Emrys.

“You’re losing it Emrys," Merlin tapped his fingers against his cheeks. “You’ve moved on from obsession from afar to hallucinating emails…great. Oh and you’re talking to yourself…”

Merlin sheepishly looked around once more, just in case Gwaine had come back from his lecture early and was now laughing at Merlin’s minor meltdown. The kitchen remained otherwise empty…

Merlin opened the laptop again and when all processes resumed he found himself looking at the same email again.

_Arthur Lawrence Jonathan Dubois Pendragon wants to be friends with you on Facebook._

_Arthur Lawrence Jonathan Dubois Pendragon_  - “Ridiculous name.” Merlin shook his head. He was not thinking about Arthur introducing himself properly, all rich tones and firm handshake and  _STOP IT!_

_'wants to be friends with you'_  That was the phrase t hat was really getting at Merlin. They’d been in the same seminar groups eighty percent of the time for the past eighteen months (well actually it was eighty-six percent, but Merlin wasn’t supposed to be counting, was he?) and aside from startlingly regular heated debates over a piece of literature they’d never actually had a conversation. The closest they’d come to physical interaction was when Arthur, a slightly-murderous look in his eyes, had held up his copy of  _The Faerie Queen_  and looked ready to hurl it at Merlin’s head just because Merlin had dared to question his interpretation of Spenser’s characters (Arthur, of course, thought Spenser’s Arthur was perfect in every way –  _well he would wouldn’t he?_  Merlin was less convinced and had informed Arthur that he was, well…wrong.) Only the quick intervention of Richard Gaius, tutor and mediator-extraordinaire, had stopped the exchange ending in carnage (Arthur’s copy of  _The Faerie Queen_  was a hardback and it would have definitely drawn blood).

Perhaps Arthur wanted to be friends on Facebook so he could taunt Merlin without witnesses. True, he could use the university email system for the same purpose, but Arthur was nothing if not stringent about maintaining his image as the perfect, intelligent, creative, athletic heir to the Pendragon shipping fortune who spent time working for international charities and probably saved small animals on a daily basis. Merlin groaned…he did  _not_ have a thing for Arthur Pendragon. Despite what Gwaine said.

Or Gwen.

Or Lance.

Or (mortifyingly _) his mother_.

Merlin traced his finger over the trackpad.  _Confirm. Ignore. Confirm. Ignore._

He should press  _Ignore_.

Definitely.

Probably.

_Maybe?_

 

**ooOOoo**

_Friend Request Sent._

“Bugger,” Arthur muttered into his cup of coffee as he looked at his laptop. “Bugger, bugger, bugger!”

He slammed the cup down on the table, liquid sloshing out over the rim, and hurriedly brought up a Google search and typed

_Recall facebook friend request?_

He sighed with relief when he discovered it was possible and clicked straight through to Merlin’s page. The cursor hovered over the  _Cancel Request_  option. He was usually so stringent about adding people on this bloody thing - ignoring hundreds of friend requests on what felt like a weekly basis, and instead keeping his 'friends' to a fairly paltry (comparatively, at least) thirty-six.

His eyes drifted to the profile picture; Merlin was smiling that really annoying smile – the one that was never directed towards Arthur – and wearing some hideous scarf that made him look like he was about to go on some desert trek – highly unlikely due to the lack of sand and camels in Cambridge.

“Bugger!” Arthur hissed again. Now he’d wasted precious seconds thinking about camels! Merlin had probably already seen the request now. Arthur supposed he could probably cancel the request anyway; Merlin wouldn’t question him on it. Probably wouldn’t say anything about it at all.

And that’s where the problem lay. Arthur could not speak to Merlin Emrys in person – he’d tried. He’d made extremely pertinent points in seminar discussions and Merlin had shot him down every time. Granted, Arthur had started to make points solely to rile the other boy…but he wasn’t going to admit that aloud.

And yet, for some unfathomable reason, Arthur couldn’t help but want to engage Merlin in discussion – even if it was an argument. Richard Gaius had threatened to knock their heads together on a number of occasions and it really worried Arthur that he wasn’t entirely opposed to that idea.  _And there we go with yet another thing he wasn’t going to admit out loud._

Arthur hit refresh and his eyes bulged.  _Cancel Request_  had disappeared; only to be replaced by a button that said  _Friends_ , a little tick confirming the change.

“Fuck,” Arthur breathed.

He typed a message before he could talk himself out of it. Coffee?

Arthur waited patiently. He absolutely did not refresh the page every three (two) seconds.

When the response finally came Arthur squinted at it, not quite daring to look.

_As long as we don’t have to talk about books._

Arthur grinned.

_Fine by me. Fitzbillies at twelve?_

He sat back and waited.

Patiently. ( _Honestly)_

 


End file.
